And god said "Let there be photos!"

And there were photos...

Over to the right of this post is the first photo album!!! Now that I know how to do it I can start uploading more... but it does take some time.

It's a long process involving pressing buttons, downloading, uploading, downloading again, pulling levers, throwing a shotput at least 100yds, pulling more levers, milking a cow and selling the milk at a farmer's market, painting an exact replica of the mona lisa, more downloading, pulling a few more levers, and finally, some uploading.

It's not for the faint of heart.
But enjoy the photos... if you click on the little photo on the right it will open the slideshow in a larger form. :)

Miss you all!

Toowoomba for the weekend

I'll be having a relaxing weekend in Toowoomba this weekend. I think it's needed.
Today was 25% productive for me. I say this because I had 4 things on my to-do list for today... and one of them was accomplished: grocery shopping. Now, this was a very involved chore. There were bus rides, lots of walking, and stumbling about town to find a bus because we left our timetable at home. Whoops. However, after about 4 hours we were back to the student village with our much needed groceries. I actually stuck pretty close to my budget too :).

Tonight we're having friends over and I'm teaching them a Jandreau Favorite - Pay Me!
I am very excited... we have the cards, and I've instructed everyone to come with their 65 cents. There is a chance we'll go to the UniClub tonight, but probably not. However, we may head down to the clubs in Toowoomba tomorrow night. We'll see.

We've also talked about doing a movie marathon day this weekend. All of the movies that were in theaters when we left the states are playing here now, so we can catch up on the ones we wanted to see.

Aside from that, it should be a nice relaxing weekend. I do have a little bit of homework to do, but that shouldn't take too long. I will most likely push that off until Monday. I do like 4 day weekends!!

Alrighty... that's about it for now. If anything new and eventful occurs here in Toowoomba (doubtful) I'll be sure to let everyone know. Oh, and I'm still working on uploading photos to the blog in the form of albums. I think I finally know how to do it... I just have to get to the internet cafe and to faster internet so I can actually upload them.

Hope everyone is well!
Miss you all!

A quick jaunt to Sydney

What a whirlwind of excitement this last week was! Here in Toowoomba I started class and actually really enjoyed it. The teachers are extremely helpful and incredibly laid back. I think this is going to be a fun semester academically. Along with class we all basically just hung out around campus and Toowoomba. Most of us were still recovering from our weekend in Surfer's Paradise.

One of the nights this past week, when we were just about to go play frisbee, this intense wind picks up along with some loud thunder and loads of lightening. I have seen a lot of thunder storms, some pretty severe, and this one was up there in probably the top 5. The pouring rain was going sideways in the wind, the lightening was consistently cracking every minute, and one specific bolt struck the lighting tower for the field where we play frisbee. The Student Village, where I live, lost power for just a few seconds. Trina lost power in her dorm for nearly 40 minutes. Luckily I had unplugged my laptop about 10 minutes before that strike. I'm extremely thankful for that. The rest of the week was pretty uneventful... just trying to find my way around campus to get to class.

On Friday, Lauren, Trina and myself began another daunting task of leaving Toowoomba. This time, Sydney bound. We took a cab, Toowoomba Transit, a train, a plane, another train, and then walked to our hostel in Sydney. Nearly 8 hours in total I think. However... I was so excited that it didn't matter how long it took. We met our friend Melissa from home who is studying in Perth. She flew in just a bit later than us, so we waited for her and then took the train into Sydney with her. Once we were in Sydney Lauren and I parted ways with Trina and Melissa, as they were staying with our friend Aaron and his cousin who are also studying in Sydney.

Lauren and I got settled in our room and then walked around the city for a bit. We decided that we wanted to go out that night so the two of us went to a few bars. It was really fun, but it was also really crowded because it was Friday night before the Mardi Gras parade. We decided not to stay out too long because we wanted to get up early to explore all day on Saturday.

While Trina and Melissa went to the beach on Saturday (they were staying right near it) Lauren and I put our walking shoes on and walked aimlessly in the general direction of the Sydney Opera House. On the way we saw lots of very neat shops, and some delicious smelling places to eat. One thing I noticed was how clean Sydney was. There never seemed to be a piece of trash anywhere. Sorry New York and Boston, but Sydney has you beat. As we walked further and further towards the harbor we stumbled upon what looked to be a park. We decided we might as well go in there. Best decision. This park actually turned out to be a HUGE garden with lots of different areas designated for different types of plants. There was a palm tree section, a cactus section, an indigenous to Australia section, and loads more. I could have walked around for hours and maybe still not have seen everything. We did walk around for probably 2 hours or so with our jaws dropped. It was so beautiful.

Now, up until now we have all been saying how it doesn't feel like we're in Australia. Sure everyone speaks with an accent, they drive on the left hand side of the road, and it's warm... but other than that, it's not too much different here. However, this all changed when Lauren and I had been in the gardens for just a few minutes and we saw it. The very top of the Opera House. It was just a sliver of it that we could see... but that's what did it. All the post cards, the pictures, and the videos of the opera house burst into my mind and I realized... I was in Australia. I was actually in Australia. I think I took like 10 pictures of just the tip-top of the opera house... only to find out I would find some of the most stunning views of it in just a few minutes time.

Once we knew where the opera house was in location to us, we decided to go to the furthest part of the gardens for some photos. Once we got as far out towards the harbor as we could, and on the biggest hill, we took some amazing photos of the harbor, the opera house, and the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Clearly by then it was enough photos and time to actually see it. Lauren and I followed the path around the edge of the harbor and walked all the way to the OH. Now what happened next absolutely blew my mind, and I never would have imagined this to happen. As we were just outside, Lauren picked up a brochure for a tour. Now, for some reason, I had it in my mind that you couldn't just WALK in to the Sydney Opera House... however we did. I walked to the info booth and asked about the tours and also if any shows we going on that day. The lady told us that the Sydney Symphony was playing in thirty minutes. We bought tickets immediately. So while everyone in their suits and dresses filed into the largest room, the Concert Hall, so did we... in our flip flops, our shorts, and our shirts lightly drenched in sweat from walking in the heat. It didn't seem to matter to us though... we were going to see the symphony... at the Sydney Opera House. Nothing could have been better. Like I said before, Australia didn't seem any different... until we saw the OH. As I sat in the symphony I thought about it, and in my head, I zoomed myself out. I was in the Opera House, in Sydney, in New South Wales, in Australia, in the Southern Hemisphere... I actually realized that I was there. Then I smiled and went back to listening to the amazing music.

After the concert Lauren and I took some photos of the harbor from within the OH. We then walked around Circular Quay (pronounced key) where there are a lot of shops and restaurants. This is also the main harbor for the ferries in Sydney. At this point, it was late afternoon and it was time to go get ready for the parade. Trina and Melissa met us at our hostel and we all got ready. Trina and Melissa had heard that everyone who goes wears lots of neon and colorful clothes... so, without knowing this before we packed, we put on the brightest colors we had, dyed our hair bright pink (temporarily), threw glitter on us, had some wine, and made our way to the parade route. Now, I knew it was going to big... I had heard they were expecting 800,000 people... but I didn't know it was going to be as big as it was. The parade route was probably a few miles long and the entire street was lined with TONS of people. We got there at 6, it didn't start until 7:45, we were about a mile from the start, and already the crowd was 5 or 6 people deep at it's shallowest. I had also read that we should bring milk crates. However... being that I'm friends with the local milkman, or the local dairy... we were SOL on that one... until a very nice, profit oriented, man came and sold us some plastic stools to stand on. We were skeptical (regardless of the fact that even I couldn't see, and I'm over 6 feet) so we asked if we could try the stools. I stood on it and immediately my hand went to my wallet, grabbed a ten, and thrusted it into the man. The girls followed suit. Now that we were two feet taller and could see perfectly over the people in front of us, we were ready to go. For the next few hours we had a great time talking with the people around us, joking, and waiting for the parade to come. Now I've seen a few parades in my day... but this one was absolutely HUGE! There were around 130 floats, and it took 2.5 hours to complete itself. It was amazing, I had such a fabulous time! At the end the crowd crashed down on Oxford Street and the bars opened their doors. We however, made the mistake of going back to change and coming back to Oxford... after almost all the bars reached their capacity. Sadly, we didn't get in anywhere and were forced to go home and end the Mardi Gras party early.

On Sunday we had planned to walk around some more and maybe even do the BridgeClimb... this is when completely sane individuals lose all sense of consciousness, strap themselves onto the Sydney Harbor Bridge, and walk to the top. I probably would have needed a Valium... but we were still going to do it anyway. Until it started raining. We also thought about going up the Sydney Tower (one of the tallest buildings in Australia) to check out the city and the views... but again, because of the rain this plan was 86'd. Instead we took the ferries around the harbor to various places. We saw a very small "Coney Island-Like" amusement park, we had lunch in Darling Harbor, we went shopping, and then we came home to the hostel. At this point we were all incredibly hungry so we went out for dinner. After that we decided that we should probably make up for the night before so we went to a place called the World Bar. What you do at the world bar is you order a large drink and it comes in a teapot with a few shot glasses. So you and your friends pour out the drink into your shot glass and sip. We sat there forever! The atmosphere of the bar was so relaxed... everyone was mellow, the lights were low, and there was terrific music playing. It was great. After that we went across the street to some hotel where there was a larger bar with dance music. We were surprised to find out that when the music shut off, it was 3am. So home we went.

Monday was our last day and we had planned to get up early so we could do the Sydney Tower. We wanted to do the bridge climb, but there wasn't going to be enough time before our flight. But, to fill it's shoes we were going to strap ourselves to the outside of the tower and walk around it. Of course though, when I woke up at 7 (after going to bed at 4) I looked outside it was cloudy and rainy. So again, plans were gone. We used our last few hours to walk around the city, do some shopping, have some food and just try and soak it all in a little more. As the sun was coming back out we were obviously walking on the train, to ride it to the airport, to fly to Brisbane, to hop on another train to the bus station, to take Toowoomba Transit to a cap waiting ever so nicely to take us back to the Student Village. We did have a few hours in Brisbane, so we explored a bit and sat down and had some Japanese food for dinner.

All in all is was an amazing weekend!!! I had so much fun, and I think I am going to try and go back another weekend later in the semester. I still want to do the bridge climb, go up the tower, see the olympic village, and just explore more. I have never been in a city and said that I could live there. Sometimes I say it about Boston, but I hate the cold... so I don't know how that would work. But I said it, and will say it about Sydney. I could live there. Who knows, maybe I'll be back again 18 months after I graduate. Don't freak out mom.

In other news, we booked our tickets last night for NEW ZEALAND! We will be flying from Brisbane to Christchurch on the south island on April 2nd and coming back on April 20th!! I am so excited. Now the chore is coming up with a basic itinerary for the trip... and a budget. ha.

All is well here, hope everyone is doing well!
Miss you all!!

Tired

We made it back from Sydney tonight. We had an amazing weekend. I will do a proper post about the weekend either tomorrow or Wednesday. I just wanted to let everyone know that we're back, and we had such a blast!

Oh, and for those of you that have heard about this cyclone... Toowoomba should be fine. It's wicked windy here tonight, and we're going to get like 4 days of rain (desperately needed) but other than that, we should be alright. Glad we went to Surfer's Last weekend, and not this one.

Ok... it's bedtime. Watch for the Sydney recap post!

Wait… I have to go to class while I’m here?

This is a really long post… grab a drink, a snack, go to the bathroom first, and enjoy.

When I last left off I had been running errands in preparation for the big trip to Surfer’s Paradise. When we read our horoscopes that Wednesday, mine told me to stay close to home to avoid drama. Now… some might have heeded said advice and had a casual weekend in Toowoomba... but there was no way I was going to miss a weekend at the beach. Plus, it was already paid for.

On Thursday morning we got up early, packed our bags, made lunches, and headed down to the bus stop at the Student Village, to get to downtown Toowoomba. At this point in time, my horoscope was already coming true. I forgot to pack my loaf of bread to make sandwiches for the weekend, I also forgot to pack my pillow, and between my house and the bus $50 fell out of my pocket. However… I still wasn’t going to let these setbacks ruin my weekend at the beach. Plus, it was already paid for.

After a half hour city bus ride to the Bus Interchange, we waited for another half hour or so until our bus left at 11:30. At this point the Toowoomba Transit Coach showed up. TTCoaches is a discount bus/van that travels back and forth from Toowoomba to Brisbane every day, multiple times. The driver told us that we could all get on the bus and that he was going to get a coffee. To the severe misfortune of the other ten passengers on the 1.5 hour ride… we were very excited about the trip. And very chatty. While we waited for the bus driver in the sweltering heat (it is important that I mention we went to the club the night before, no one was in tip-top shape this morning) I really wished I had my pillow to sleep on… and I also wished I hadn’t left my ipod in my backpack, in the trailer behind the bus. As everyone else slept and/or listened to music I basically talked to myself to keep myself entertained. Again, the horoscope.

Once we arrived in Brisbane we had another half an hour to kill before we caught the train to a station about 20 minutes outside of Surfer’s Paradise. This ride was about and hour and a half long and was complete with PB&J Sandwiches: our staple meal of the weekend. For this train ride I was stuck riding backwards. Again, we went to the club the night before. From the train, we had one more city bus ride to go into the heart of Surfer’s Paradise. From there, we had to take a cab 4km north to our Hostel. All in all it was 6 hours of travel. It may have been long… but it was cheap! (I would like to digress from the timeline here to say that a friend of a friend drove from Toowoomba to Surfer’s that same day and it took him 1.5 hours. I hate him.)

As soon as we were checked into the hostel we threw our suits on and ran to the beach. Like children we threw everything down, and went running and splashing into the ocean. Mind you, it is almost 5pm and no one else is on the beach at this time. However, the water was like 75-80 degrees or something “bath-watery” like that and we stayed in for quite some time. As we went back to our hostel we decided that as a treat to ourselves… we would eat out for the first time in Australia. We went to a nice, but overpriced, restaurant right next to our hostel. As we were leaving the restaurant a torrential down pour started… this horoscope may have been coming true. To our luck though, there was a bottle store in the same building our hostel was in. The rain had nothing on us now. So true, that we decided it would be a good idea to go to the beach in the pouring rain. Now, the winds on the beach were probably pushing 20mph and it was raining horizontally. Put that together with the sandblasting effect of the sand/wind and it was like a micro-derm-abrasion. So we snapped a few photos and then ran back to the hostel for some more wine and some card games.

Lauren, Trina, Stephanie, and myself decided that it would be a great idea to get up at 5am the next morning and watch the sun rise at the beach. This seemed great until Lauren was poking me saying…. ‘Get up! It’s 5am!” I somehow managed to throw myself from the top bunk, find clothes to put on, grab my camera,and stumble to the beach. Once we got there though, it completely made up for it. The sunrise was actually really drawn out because there were a ton of clouds along the horizon… so we watched as the sky and the clouds turned different colors until the sun finally rose above them, hit the skyline and the beach, and illuminated all the colors of the sand, the trees, and the blue sky. We hung out there for a while and then I clearly went home to take a nap.

Lauren and Trina went for a run…. Overachievers.

That day we lathered (I use this term loosely) on our sunscreen, packed up our towels, made some PB&Js and went to the beach. Now… some of you may be aware that Australia has many parts that lack a strong o-zone layer. If you aren’t aware of this, sit in the sun for more than 10 minutes and you will shortly understand very clearly. I was well aware of how intense the sun was, so before the trip I ran (not literally) to K-Mart to purchase some sunscreen. As I looked through the meager and expensive selection, I came across a moderately priced tube of sunscreen from the Cancer Council of Australia. Now I assumed that this council was preventing cancer, by way of their sun block. How little do I know? Apparently, they WANT you to get cancer… and not just any kind of cancer, but SKIN CANCER! I used this “sunscreen” (I’m assuming it was just hand cream) at least every two hours. At the end of the day, myself and many others, were so red that it hurt. My foot, my entire left side, and my neck looked like I was tanning on the sun. Our next purchase was obviously a huge tub of Aloe Vera… and a creemie from McDonalds for good measure.

That night we walked our crispy selves down a path near the beach to an outdoor craft market. It was really interesting. Some of the things were actually very artsy… such as some pottery, hand carved cutting boards, and some didgeridoos. Some things… were not. My favorite of the “not-so-artsy” things were pink and camo baseball hats that the sales woman had taken glitter-glue and written many common names onto. I didn’t look at the price, mainly because if I looked and saw them being sold for more than $5 I would have burst out laughing… but I seriously thought about getting some of them for all of you. You know, some genuine Australian gifts.

Saturday was probably our most fun day. We signed up through our hostel to have SURFING LESSONS! Now I said to myself before hand… If I can stand up on the board once in the two hours, I’ll be more than impressed. However… I was standing up in just about an hour’s time. Granted, we were on HUGE learning surfboards, but nonetheless… it was so cool. After a while though I was so exhausted from constantly fighting the waves to get out to where I could ride one back in to the shore. It was so fun though, and we all did so much better than we anticipated. I definitely want to try surfing again. I was so beat from the surfing that all I wanted to do was take a nap. Then we found a mall… I bought a new bathing suit. I did end up taking a nap, only after eating a PB&J first though. After dinner (a BBQ put on by our hostel) we got all dressed up and went into town to meet some friends and go out to the clubs. It was a pretty fun evening, but we were so sore/tired from surfing that we called it an early night.

Now, this picture has a water bubble RIGHT over my face. I swear that it is me. It was one of the best pictures of me surfing... sadly my face was cut off. Try not to cry.

On Sunday we had to check out of our hostel by 10, but we weren’t leaving Surfer’s until 3. Luckily we could store our bags there while we went to the beach. Now, I was still pretty charred from Friday and the last thing I wanted to do was be in the sun. So when I got to the beach, I buried my legs in the sand, kept my shirt on, and used Trina’s rain umbrella to shade me. I looked like a complete idiot. But, it was 90 degrees out that day and I was keeping myself cool and no more burned than I was already. Sadly, we got back on our 5 leg journey back to Toowoomba. 5-6 hours later I was back in the Grasshopper Den conserving water.

On the 5^th day, I rested.

Tuesday was the first say of class!! I was really nervous at first because our schedule seemed so confusing, and I didn’t even have a notebook yet, and I already felt behind. But once we got to class everything seemed fine. The classes here are interesting. Usually, there is a main lecture once a week and then every class has what is called a tutorial, once a week, which goes along with the lecture. This tutorial basically reinforces what was taught in lecture. I think they’re going to be very helpful in studying and retaining the information. Today we had our Situations in Clinical Practice course, our Episodes of Nursing course, and our tutorial for Episodes. We were supposed to have a lecture for our Mental Health class, but we found out that the first 5 weeks have recorded lectures and powerpoints online for us to watch whenever. Tuesday is our longest day, but it didn’t seem too bad today.

Last night and tonight we played Ultimate Frisbee in the field and did a little exercising as well. We’re trying to make it an every night thing. We’ll see…

Other than that things are going well. Hopefully this post wasn’t too long to absolutely bore you to death. But this weekend was pretty eventful!

Oh! Trina, Lauren, and I are going to Sydney this weekend. I know, I know… such jet-setters. But our friend Melissa will be there from Perth this weekend and we’ll also visit our friend Aaron who is studying there. Should be another fun weekend!

Hope all is well at home!

Miss you all!

The Tickets are Purchased, The Hostel Booked

Final plans have just been made for our trip to the Gold Coast this weekend. Nine of us are traveling via bus and train from Toowoomba to Surfer's Paradise on the Gold Coast. I hope to have some amazing photos to upload by the time we get back. Since we last spoke I haven't done too much. This weekend a group of 10 of us went downtown to go clubbing... it was a lot of fun.

Sunday was one of those "family orientation" days on campus. We kind of forgot that it was a real college with real freshman and real parents who would be crying as they dropped their kids off that day...haha. However, it was great for us because there was free food, free music, and some fun things to do including a rockclimbing wall!!!! Trina tried to get me to give a thumbs-up here... but I clearly did not want to let go.

After the orientation BBQ we realized that it was our friend Casey's , from Canada, Birthday. We decided to throw him a surprise party at our friend Emma's house because she has a pool and a grill at her townhouse. We got Casey's fiance, Michelle, in on it and we bought all the food, blew up some balloons, and threw a party. It was actually a lot of fun. We swam a bit, finally had a cheeseburger or two, and then had ice cream. We all had such a great time just hanging out and finding things out about one another.

Monday and Tuesday were more full of errands that we needed to accomplish. We went to Kmart to get a few things, we ran around campus trying to finalize our schedules, we got our IDs taken for school, and we of course went online. :) On Tuesday morning we had our faculty orientation... which was essentially the college of nursing introducing themselves to us. It kind of got us energized for class... not really though... haha. I can't believe we still don't start class until next week. I just talked to some of the nurses from home and they are almost halfway through their semester already.... I can't believe that. After the orientation there was free pizza... clearly a plus. I felt like I was getting a cold yesterday and in order to prevent being sick for Surfer's Paradise tomorrow I decided my time was most well spent sleeping all afternoon (from 1-6.) After that I got up, had some dinner, and then everyone came over to play some games. We played cribbage, catchphrase :), and then an interesting game of telephone involving drawings and interpretations. It was absolutely hilarious! Especially with some of the language barriers.

Today is more errands. My laundry is currently being washed next door at the laundromat and I'm getting things in place for Surfer's Paradise TOMORRRRRROW! I cannot wait. Pictures will come. :) Oh, and new photos are up on Facebook too.... more from rockclimbing and some from Casey's Party.

Miss you all!! :)

Bush Dance... maybe as fun as an Obama Dance

Last night all of the international students crammed our sweaty selves into a small cafeteria to participate in a traditional Australian Bush Dance... what we might call a line/square dance.
The bush dance was complete with a bush band, 50 international students (most of which have a slightly hard time with English,) and very little air flow. As temperatures rose, the sweat fell, the dancing got harder, and the laughing got louder. It was a riot in there! Everyone was trying to understand the caller as well as try to understand the dance at the same time. I think I got more of an Ab workout from laughing so much!This is a picture of the band. The main singer (in the middle) had this stick with tons of beer bottle caps nailed to it that would rattle. He would stomp the stick on the ground and whack it at the same time with some other type of stick.

At the end of the bush dance it clearly had to start pouring! I've finally figured out the weather here... in the morning it is cloudy and muggy. By noon the sun comes out and it is sweltering! When the sun sets around 6 it gets cooler, and then when 9 or so rolls around it rains. Now the rain is hit or miss... sometimes it's a mist, other times it's a torrential downpour. But there is one thing for sure: it will rain, you just don't know when.

During the day Wednesday we took a bus tour around Toowoomba and we were then dropped off downtown so we could do some more than necessary shopping! I bought two things that I will hold so close to my heart until I leave... a pillow, and a Brita pitcher!!! Not having a pillow was almost unbearable and I have a pretty killer one now thanks to Target :) Also the water here tastes like it came straight from a public swimming pool, so to have filtered water every day now is just amazing! On the bus tour we went to what I think may be the highest point in Toowoomba, called picnic point. There is a giant Australian flag on top of this hill, and I could see that when we first drove up the mountain to Toowoomba. From here I could look down on the highway that we took to get here. This picture is looking east towards Brisbane.

That seems to be all for now... I've been having a great time hanging out with all of the international students.... Germans, Canadians, Americans, Indians, Malaysians... it's been so much fun. We are planning on going for a hike sometime this weekend and we're also planning a trip to Surfer's Paradise for next week some time. Google it. It's beautiful. I think we're also going to head into Toowoomba this afternoon to venture.

OHHHH! I almost forgot... I BOUGHT A BIKE! It's a special bike... needs some TLC, but I think it'll do the trick to get me to the store and back. I'll post a picture of that soon!
Miss you all!